Nicely put! On 1 Apr 2014 22:29, "Amy Vossbrinck" avossbrinck@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello All:
I have been following this thread with great interest and a kind of deeply appreciative fascination.
First to say that I am relatively new to WMF - having been on board for just a bit over a year. Previously the jobs that I had pretty much covered the entire waterfront:
Summer jobs in high school Jobs while in college (didn't we all do that!) 4 years in a combination of corporations and small businesses 17 years as a volunteer as I raised my two sons 17 years in non-profits (helping to found 3 of them) 2 years in county government 2 years as a scheduler for a Presidential campaign and most recently, just before I came here, 6 years as a scheduler for a US Congressman.
"She must be 'old as dirt" you are thinking - well not just yet - and among other things that set WMF apart - they do not discriminate on the basis of age :-) :-) :-)
WMF is unique in so many ways from all the other places I have worked, just to name a few:
Basic operating manual: Assume good faith! Look for the truth! Express your views in an unbiased way! (a slight rewording of the "rules" for editing).
Everything is discussed in the open.
Everyone is welcome to express their opinion.
The leadership (all the way to the "top") openly apologizes when mistakes are made.
Rather than "dig in" and insist on continuing processes that don't work, people at WMF put their heads together and look for a different solution. Much like the point in the movie "Apollo 13" when they discover that the air in the stranded capsule is slowly killing the astronauts. The team is told to bring everything to a meeting that the astronauts have available inside the capsule. They all come into the room shouting and pointing fingers at each other in an effort to lay blame regarding what went wrong. At some point Ed Harris, who plays the White Team Flight Director, yells, "Let's just work the problem!" WMF is good at "working the problem".
When I reflect on the above, I ask, "what if the entire world worked this way, or even half the world, or even just enough people to get us to the tipping point. It would be powerful stuff.
I don't intend to imply that we are looking at perfect - but then, life is not about perfection of action (we are after all human), it is about perfection of intention which is not that from "assume good faith."
Take good care, Amy
-- *Amy Vossbrinck* *Executive Assistant to the* *Chief of Finance and Administration, Garfield Byrd* *Wikimedia Foundation* *149 New Montgomery Street* *San Francisco, CA 94105* *415.839.6885 ext 6628* *avossbrinck@wikimedia.org avossbrinck@wikimedia.org* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe